Carelessness Makes Car Theft Easy, Says Man In The Know

February 14, 1985

Except for a few scuff marks, Don Bledsoe`s briefcase looks ordinary enough--except it rattles when he walks.

He opens the case, pushes aside an assortment of hardware and grabs a black booklet listing the serial number of every General Motors ignition key ever made. He then takes what resembles a plastic, hand- held labeling device, inserts a blank key, dials a number, click, another click, and, in less than 15 seconds, Bledsoe drops an ignition key on the table.

Bledsoe, 58, repossessess cars by trade. He`s had lots of practice; he claims to have stolen at least 750 cars during the years he wasn`t in jail. And he`s spent 32 years of his life in prison.

Now Bledsoe`s time is divided between repossessing cars and serving as a consultant to the Pasedena Police Department and to Alpine Electronics of America of Torrance, Calif., producer of mobile security sytems for cars.

The number of repossessions--four to five a week--keeps Bledsoe active. But repossession is a cottage industry compared with FBI estimates that 2 cars are stolen in this country every 60 seconds and that losses cost the public more than $5 billion annually.

Considering that a good thief can earn more than $100,000 a year tax-free and that his workday entails only about 30 seconds in time and labor, it`s obvious why car thefts are thriving, Bledsoe said.

Yet, he insisted, it`s not just thieves who have larceny in their hearts. ``A lot of it has to do with the economy. People buy cars and later find they can`t afford them. So they find someone like me and pull off an insurance fraud,`` he said. ``They get out from under the payments they can`t afford.`` Bledsoe also blamed those in the body and fender trade ``who like to cut corners.``

``Take a Camaro. Bought over the counter, a replacement hood could run $450, each fender $250. That`s $950 for 3 parts. If the body man can purchase those same 3 parts for $250 and still charge the guy $950 plus labor, well, he`s had himself a good day.``

Bledsoe said stripping cars to run chop-shop operations feeds upon itself.

``Take a Porsche 911 that`s been stripped of all removable parts. The owner can wait 6 months to get all the parts he needs, and it will cost him 15 percent more than if he bought the car in 1 piece, or he can buy all those parts for $1,000 to $1,500 from a thief.``

So the thief strips the parts from another 911 to satisfy his customer and now that owner needs parts to rebuild his victimized 911. The chain just keeps growing.

Bledsoe said some motorists have begun trying to ward off thieves by attaching alarm decals to their cars, but no actual alarm.

``If I`m a thief and I see a decal on a car, I walk by and kick it. If the alarm goes off, I keep walking. If not, I know it`s only decals.``

Because Bledsoe serves as a consultant to Alpine, he of course promotes alarm usage.

``If two `Vettes are sitting side by side and one has an alarm system and one doesn`t, the thief is going to go for the one without an alarm, of course.`` But, he admitted, ``If the one with the alarm has racing wheels, leather seats and lots of other equipment, he`ll figure a way to get it.``

Bledsoe said your car doesn`t necessarily ``have to be flashy`` to be stolen. ``The most popular car stolen in California today is the `55 Chevy because there are no replacement parts available.``

Some advice from Bledsoe: ``Realize you`re dealing with something mobile that`s already on wheels. Don`t leave a key in the car and don`t leave any packages or anything of value in sight, either. Okay, so it`s an empty box in the back seat. The thief doesn`t know it`s empty. He might break $150 worth of glass to find out.

``Park your car in the driveway, not away from your house along the curb. Install a light on the front of the house that shines on the car. No thief likes to work in the light; he doesn`t want people to see him. Keep the car as close to where you`re going or where there are many people around.``